Melbourne Racing Club

The first VATC race meeting was held at Dowling Forest Racecourse in Ballarat, on Friday, 24 March 1876.

In 1940, the military occupied Caulfield Racecourse for a period of four years, and it became a depot and barracks for army recruits during the Second World War.

Following the merger, the newest of Melbourne's race tracks, Sandown Racecourse, was opened on 19 June 1965, in front of a crowd of over 52,000.

With the increase in the number of visiting international horses to the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival, the VATC established a permanent quarantine centre at Sandown Racecourse in 1997.

In 2024, the club was engulfed in controversy arising from a number of decisions by the MRC board, including the potential sale of Sandown Racecourse, a $250 million plan to replace the glass-fronted Rupert Clarke grandstand, and a $160 million upgrade to the Caulfield course that had included an unpopular new site of the mounting yard, and a new inner track that was rarely used.